The difference in how two wooded tracts on the North Shore were sold could not have been greater. Nor could the outcome: Goodhue was preserved; Mount Manresa wasn't.

About two-thirds of the 42-acre Goodhue property in Randall Manor have been acquired by the city Department of Parks, with most of the rest due to follow.

At the 15.4-acre site of the historic Mount Manresa Catholic retreat house in Fort Wadsworth, buildings and trees are being destroyed. The new owner plans to build 250 townhouses.

There are lessons to be learned from this.

The Children's Aid Society has been patiently working with the city since 2006 to facilitate the transfer to the public of most of the bucolic Goodhue site it has owned since 1912.

But the Society of Jesus, which has operated Mount Manresa for equally as long, shunned pleas to help save the property that it put up for sale two years ago.

"The Children's Aid Society should be congratulated on how they handled this situation," said Borough President James Oddo. "Juxtapose how they afforded government the time and opportunity to cobble resources together to how others ... recently sold property and you can see they are true community partners who continue to care about Staten Island."

The city was able to acquire for $7.1 million last year the first 15 acres of the Goodhue campus, where children have for decades taken part in recreation and learning. The price tag on the latest transaction was not disclosed.

William Weisberg, interim president and CEO of the Children's Aid Society, called the purchase "a win-win."

We couldn't agree more.

"Staten Islanders will have access to more beautiful parkland and the Children's Aid Society will be better equipped to further invest in programs and services for Staten Island's most vulnerable children," said Mr. Weisberg.

The non-profit agency plans to retain about four acres of Goodhue to continue its work on Staten Island.

In the third and final transaction, the Parks Department remains committed to purchasing 11 more acres at Goodhue.

"Acquiring Goodhue for a city park is a perfect example of what can be accomplished when city agencies, elected officials and a willing seller work together," said Mr. Oddo,

To suit themselves, the Jesuits – who are far wealthier than the Children's Aid Society - set the opposite example with their sale of Mount Manresa,

Two years ago, the religious order put the property overlooking the Narrows up for sale, describing it as "a trophy development site." The asking price: $15.9 million.

The Rev. Vincent Cooke, a spokesman for the Jesuit order, said when the property went on the market, "Our preference is to get a new owner who wants to preserve the property, but you never know what people will do."

Which seems looking back to have been a disingenuous remark, to say the least.

Mount Manresa was sold to the Savo Brothers whose plan to squeeze townhouses into the residential neighborhood has been decried as overdevelopment at its worst.

When the Jesuits announced their intention to sell, Mr. Oddo, then a City Councilman, said: "On the way out the door, they have the obligation to do right by the borough. Maybe it shouldn't come down to top dollar seals the deal."

Inexplicably, the New York Province of the Society of Jesus chose to do good in another way elsewhere.

It came at a time when Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit that facilitates the sale of properties to the government, was helping to preserve the greenery at Goodhue and at the Pouch Boy Scout camp in Sea View.

Now a survey has begun in an effort to identify public and private open space in the borough that might be vulnerable to development, partly because of its current zoning.

The Staten Island Land Catalog is a joint project of Mr. Oddo and our City Council delegation, with the support of the College of Staten Island.

The idea is to duplicate the success at Goodhue and prevent what happened at Mount Manresa.